Inkjet technologies are used for material deposition in a number of applications including text and graphic printing, solid freeform fabrication, and creating electronic devices. When used to form a desired image, traditional inkjet dispensers eject discrete droplets of fluid onto a print media at designated locations. The locations for the discrete droplets are chosen such that the droplets will approximate a continuous line. However, high precision print images and line approximations are often difficult to achieve because as a series of discrete droplets arrive at a print media location, contact with the print media may cause jagged edges and gaps. Moreover, misguided satellite droplets may wander out of a desired target area further decreasing the precision of the resulting image.
Similarly, solid freeform fabrication methods may incorporate inkjet technology to eject discrete droplets of build and/or support material in a desired pattern or orientation to form a desired three-dimensional object. These solid freeform fabrication methods and any other application of inkjet dispensing that relies on the dispensing of discrete droplets to approximate a continuous line have also suffered from a lack of continuity or smoothness due to the characteristics of dispensing discrete droplets of fluid in designated locations.
One traditional method used to smooth edges when selectively depositing a fluid with an inkjet dispenser is to increase the resolution of the dispenser. By increasing the number of discrete droplets that may be dispensed per square inch (dpi), more precision and subsequently smoother edges of a dispensed object may be achieved. However, in order to increase the droplets per square inch produced by a dispenser, a higher frequency of droplet emission and/or a longer dispensing duration is required.
Alternatively, the rough edges of two-dimensional lines or images have traditionally been smoothed through the insertion of additional smaller droplets into the voids that are created along the edges of deposited fluid. While this method is somewhat effective in smoothing the edges of lines or images, in order to form both the images being created as well as deposit smaller droplets, either a method of operating an inkjet fluid deposition apparatus to deliver multiple sized droplets of fluid must be developed or separate jets dedicated to various fluid droplet sizes must be added thereby increasing the cost, sometimes prohibitively so, of the fluid dispensing device.